Returning to the Nightmare
by Hakkari
Summary: Another virus is striking The World, and it's up to the .hackers to find and control any damage. But what happens when the virus begins to affect the true players outside of the game, in more ways than just comas? Some KitexBlackRose.
1. Prologue

Prologue

The room was silent, boxes and books strewn about in various disarray. Every object was covered with a thin layer of dust, save for the computer in the far right corner. If not for its polished and almost new appearance, the room could be considered abandoned, or at least abused. But no, for the desktop computer was still whirring, a tiny red light flashing as if to prove that there was still something alive, something not broken in the area.

Suddenly it began to beep. At first, the tiny noises were spread apart, but rapidly they began to blend together. Finally it just became one long, steady beep before shutting off. The computer suddenly cut on, a bright white screen illuminating the entire room. As if on cue, the entire room woke itself up, every light beginning to flash and every alarm beginning to whine or bark.

With all the noise, one could hardly hear the small 'thunk' as sock-covered feet hit the carpeted floor. She had been asleep for a few hours now, just waiting for this to happen. The woman was struggling to hide her excitement at the computer's insistent beeping, her back straight and head held high, but her shaking hands gave away her emotions.

Artfully avoiding all of the junk on her floor, she placed herself onto the metal chair that sat in front of the now blinding monitor. Pushing up her glasses and uttering a soft prayer, she quickly typed the access code and password into the now present boxes, thin fingers never missing a beat. Pressing enter with her pinky, she sat back, cracking her knuckles. The screen switched to a new one, this page sporting a loading bar. The woman groaned, pushing back a loose, messy strand of black hair. "Not again… the last one took three nights… Of course this one will probably take long-"

"We apologize for the wait. Welcome 'Maggie46', to your current projects page," the high pitched female voice paused, gathering the pre-recorded lines from the website's database, "One of your projects has reached completion and has been approved by our monitors. Would you like to launch 'World_Virus04'?" She chuckled at how the voice dropped drastically to an almost masculine volume when it stated the name of her prize. It even pronounced the underscore and called her 'oh-four' 'zero-four'. Ah, the limited voices of the site were endlessly amusing.

A warning box popped up on the screen. Dragging her cursor over to it, she hovered over the 'Yes' option, pursing her lips with thought. She had worked for a year on the virus she was about to unleash. Pluto Again had inspired it, had struck actual fear into people. But already the names and faces of those heroes, the ones who had saved the coma victims and everyone else, had faded from public memory. Sure, they were represented by virtual avatars and none of their players had stepped up, but they had been forgotten so quickly. It just wasn't fair to any of them, any who had been involved at all. And so she had created a virus that would spread through The World again, causing widespread panic. It would mimic Pluto Again, data bugs and corrupted areas seeping into the game once more.

She was about to click the option that she so desired, but she hesitated again. What about those who had suffered during the event? Those families who lost members, if only temporarily, had been hit so very hard. Some may be hit again, and perhaps there was no hope of recovery this time around. But sacrifices sometimes needed to be made to reveal information previously withheld, correct? So many had, at first, wanted to know who their heroes were, even though very few even knew the names of the characters of the heroic people. With this limited information at hand, the search soon died down and eventually faded, just like the memory of those heroes. They deserved more than the five seconds of fame they had been granted.

With this in mind, she muttered to the computer her answer. "Yes. I do wish to launch the program." Clicking on the option that corresponded with her verbal response, she leaned back in her chair as the loading bar appeared again.

This one took longer than the last, giving her various notes such as warnings of risks to her computer. They never gave her an option to abort, however, though she wouldn't have anyway. Finally it bleeped to show completion, then opened another, smaller window. She peered at it, pushing her glasses up her nose again. It was a countdown until the virus was officially launched. With a barking laugh and a smile, she threw herself backwards, causing the chair to fall back with her in it.

There were ten days, twenty three hours and fifty eight minutes left until her virus chewed itself into The World's server.

"Mistress, it would help if you would tell us what the problem is." Sheraton sighed, exasperated. Aura was being a moody teenager, affected by non-existent hormones. The other vagrant AIs had decided to leave her with the poor broken Wavemaster, thinking that he of all of them could cure her of the curse that had taken hold. He had taken the job reluctantly, at first thinking that it would be easy. Upon arriving at the white room, however, he had been greeted by Aura throwing a pillow at him and screaming. It hadn't been the most pleasant thing, but by then he couldn't back out. The others had scurried away in a hurry, not giving him the chance to pass on the duty to someone else.

"It would appear, dear Sheraton, that she is in deep thought at the moment and not sulking. Perhaps you should look at more than the obvious, yes?" The AI groaned, beating his head against the white wall. The deep, but obviously female, voice laughed. She was the other bane of his existence, the other reason why the job was so unbearable. Her tail flicked, and she laughed again at his silence.

Finally she rose, shaking herself off before going to stand next to the Wavemaster. "Mia, what could you possibly mean? She's obviously in the middle of one of her tantrums. Damn teenagers and their complaining…" He rubbed his neck in annoyance. Mia laughed again.

"You haven't heard about it yet then, have you?" Sheraton sighed, not in the mood for one of her games.

"What, Mia? Mind being a bit more obvious as to what you're alluding to?"

"The virus that's been biting the servers, of course!" She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Though he would've liked to act as if he knew all along, the news surprised him.

"Virus?"

"Yes, virus. Don't tell me you didn't know!" She leaned towards him seductively; tail flicking back and forth and ears pressed back. Her toothy grin widened at his stumped face. With another laugh she resumed her standing position, smiling again.

"She's probably just e-mailing her hero, Sheraton. Relax. They'll get it settled soon enough. Don't you worry any more of your character data!" With that statement she shoved her paw through one of the holes in his robe and laughed again at his discomfort.

"Are you sure it's nothing, Mia?!" The cat-type AI had a way of words that could make everything she said mean something else entirely. This time she nodded confidently.

"Don't you worry, everything is going to be settled very soon."


	2. Your Princess is in Another Castle!

It wasn't everyday that you could find Akira Hayami dressed up in princess garb, being held captive by a leather-clad, blade-wielding rogue. This was dragging on forever, and she had other places to be. "How much longer are we going to be sitting here, Risa?"

"It's 'The Shadow Queen', Princess Hanagawa." Akira rolled her eyes, kicking her captor in the shin playfully. Her friend always did take her performances seriously.

"I don't understand why I had to play the princess, and you're the badass evil queen. I could've totally beat you out if they had looked past the length of our hair." Risa chuckled despite herself. It was true that they had seen her short, spiked hair and immediately after assigned her the role. It was the only reason that Shouko was playing the sorceress Hoshizawa. Her hair was long enough to sew vines into, and thus she was perfect for the part.

"Well, maybe if you kept your hair short, Princess, you would have been in the running. Your hair was perfectly fine before. Now look at you, running around with that shoulder-length hair thinking you're better than the rest of us!" Akira had to pop her hand on top of her mouth to conceal her laughter. Usually she got her hair cut during winter break, but she had decided against it this year, much to the surprise of her classmates and family. She told them that it was time for a change; she had entered her final year of school and it was the last chance to make an impression.

Her true reasoning was that it looked too much like BlackRose for her to be comfortable.

Kenji had been the first to point it out, saying rather bluntly that she looked exactly like her game character, only without the tattoos and pink hair. Akira had never really thought that she looked so much like the Heavy Blade, but upon further inspection she discovered that the two were like twins. Except that one was toned, tall, tan, and was proud enough to strut around in an armored bikini top.

"Well, you found us." She was snapped from her thoughts at Risa's lines. The prince (some first-year boy she didn't know) and Shouko were standing before them, waving around a sword and a staff respectively. Akira instinctively plastered on her scared face, clutching at her breast and gasping. From the corner of her eye she could see the audience leaning forward in their seats, wanting to know what would happen next.

"Give us back the princess and we'll let you go without harm!" First-year boy had good projection, Akira realized. It was a shame that her role was so bland that she wasn't even thinking of her own lines. Risa tugged lightly at her hair, commanding her to stand up and bear her neck. Leaning one of her foam daggers against her exposed throat, Risa sneered.

"Make one move towards me and she dies." Shouko stepped forward this time, holding her staff against her heart. Her vine dress swayed with every one of her breaths.

"Shadow Queen, the darkness in your heart is too much for even _me_ to purify! You must be killed before you lose control of even your own body!" Akira resisted the urge to smack her palm against her face. The script was horrible. One of the teachers had written it. Though his name had been left off the credits to avoid harrassment, it was pretty obvious who had concieved the play. It was some first-year teacher, the father of the first-year boy who was playing the prince. He was sitting proud in the audience, the one teacher who actually seemed anything close to interested.

Shouko began to wave her staff, chanting improvised gibberish before swinging it towards Risa. She took a hop back, avoiding the staff's blow. It stopped, pointing at the center of her chest. "By the stars be cleansed!"

At this Risa suddenly dropped, screaming and scooting herself in a circle. It took every ounce of self control in Akira's body to keep her from laughing. The death of the Shadow Queen was so over the top it hurt to watch. Finally she stopped moving, flailing her hands to the side and sticking her tongue out. It was Akira's turn now.

Stepping over the now 'dead' Risa, she bowed before the prince and allowed him to take her hand. "Thank you, brave prince and mighty sorcerer. The Shadow Queen will rule no more over any land, not even the Bridge of the Dead, which shall become again part of my kingdom." She felt the first-year get closer, and she fought the urge to turn and flee. He was taller than her, enveloping her in all his... _person_.

"There is one last thing for me to do, milady."

"And what is that?" He bent down to meet her lips, closing his eyes as he prepared for impact. Akira was leaned forward to return the motion when an image of Kenji appeared in her head. She turned away and fled off the stage, leaving the first-year without any lip action and the rest of the cast to stand around stupidly. The plan had been to let the two kiss, close the curtains, and then get the hell out of there as fast as possible. Now even the curtain boy was confused, looking blankly at the director.

The audience was just as confused as the cast, whispering to each other and looking around wildly. What had just happened? Kazu was the first to leap out of his chair, manuvering his way through the crowd and out the back door. There he found Akira with her face in her hands, the small plastic crown sitting next to her. "Akira...?"

"I just couldn't... I've pissed a lot of people off, haven't I Kazu?" She looked at him, a hurt fire burning in her eyes. Fumikazu sighed. She would never openly cry.

"Well, other than everyone in the audience and probably the guy playing the prince, no."

She chuckled. "Poor him. I'm pretty sure the only reason he tried out for that role was the kiss, and he didn't-" Her phone, hidden under layers of dress, began to vibrate. Digging around until she found her pocket, she rolled her eyes at Kazu and flipped it open. He hummed, waiting for her to respond to whatever text she had gotten.

The next thing he knew, her phone was on the ground and she had fallen. "Akira!"

"I'm... fine. I just... I need to call Kenji." Kazu offered her an arm, which she shakingly took.

"Now? Can't you wait until-"

"Now. Do you have any change I could borrow for a phone?" Kazu nodded, dropping a few coins into her hands before she fled, lifting her dress up as she ran.

"Hey Akira, you forgot- Oh, nevermind." He picked up her cell for her, wanting to see what had startled his usually unshakable sister. What he saw nearly made him drop the phone as well.

On the screen was a picture of Aura, followed by a scrambled letter. The subject line read, in capital lettering;

**NEED HELP DYING**


	3. Tired of My Phone Ringin'

Aura's eyes flickered as she scanned over the message she had sent to BlackRose. The subject line made her flinch. She was what the live-folk would call, 'fear-mongering'. It had been an accident, though. The true subject was supposed to be, **NEED HELP **_**SERVER **_**DYING**, but she was sure that the level-headed dot-hackers would be able to figure out the meaning without freaking out.

Maybe it was right to be fearful, though. Whenever she tried to send Kite an email, it would bounce back with a message stating that the account was no longer active. Her false hormones had reacted at that, throwing her into a moodswing of legendary proportions. Poor Sheraton had been forced to flee to Net Slum, while Mia had laughed herself silly and teleported herself to Mac Anu. After an hour Mia had returned, pointing out that The World was a _paid_ service, and that it was very possible that Kite - not having any interest in returning - had cancelled his account in order to save for whatever teenage males bought.

"During your freak out, I decided I'd look through various surveys on the web. Apparently males in his age group - and I'm getting this from his inactive account page - purchase things such as _video games_ and _condoms_. Though some websites that I found were... less than sophisticated... I think I found all of the hot spots for the teenage male speciman." Though her face remained straight, her eyes and tail told a different story. Aura decided not to further press her for any of that information, deciding instead to send an email to his partner BlackRose. At least _her_ account was still active.

"Where's Sheraton, Mia? Could you find him for me? Please?" Her voice was full of determination, though it was quieter than a mouse. Mia flicked her ear, amused.

"What do you want with that sourpuss that you can't get with me? I happen to be the most knowledgable about humankind, if you didn't know. He just sits in the bottom of dungeons, ranting about wanting to find an answer or something. Apparently BlackRose was the fourth one to figure out the riddle, though she thought it actually proved her big conspiracy theory was right or something like that," Mia waved her hand around, rolling her eyes, "It was purely coincidence that it was from the _Epitaph_. It could have been from _Mother Goose_ or-"

"Mia. Please." Her already weary voice sounded even wearier. Mia nodded, shutting up instantly and warping to Net Slum. As soon as she departed the room lurched forward with a loud 'thud'. Aura sighed. This quake had been larger than the one just hours ago.

"Please Kite, return to me. Just until this is over. Then you never have to return again."

"-so I dunno what it means! Why do you think Aura's dying again? Is Skeith back? What about Mia? Elk will be-"

"Akira."

"...Yes?"

"Slow down, okay? Now, start from the beginning." His voice crackled over the line. Akira felt an unfamiliar rage swell within her. Why was he being so calm?

"Kenji... Aura is _dying_. That's what the message said." There was a rush of crackling. He was sighing or roaring. Akira couldn't really tell. After a few minutes of silence, his voice returned.

"I'm looking over the email, Akira, and I can't understand _any_ of it. It's worse than the emails she used to send me when I still played. Which begs this question; _why_ do you still have your account active?" Damn. He had caught her.

"Well, uh, I mean..."

"Have you been playing again?" He sounded amused. He was probably smirking, too. She just wanted to wipe off whatever smarmy expression he had on. It wasn't even like she was actually _playing_, anyway! She had just reactivated her account that month so that Kazu could clean her character off and take whatever loot and money she had left over.

"Look, it was pure coincidence that my account was up this month. But we're getting distracted here. What about Aura?" Kenji seemed a little too calm about the situation. Two years ago he would have been doing everything in his power to solve the message. Of course, that had been when Yasuhiko had been in a coma and BlackRose had been breathing down his neck. Thinking about it, he did probably deserve a break of about ten years.

"I want to help, but I'm not going to get worked up about some email I can't even understand."

"But-"

"Akira, please. I'll email Takumi and Daigoro and meet you at the usual spot, okay? I'll bring Yasuhiko and you can bring Mrs. Kurokawa and Kazu, and we'll figure this out. So calm down; Aura can wait one more day." He still sounded annoyingly calm.

"Okay..."

"So, you had your play tonight, right?" Kenji's voice turned playful. He knew how much she had rued the day she had to go up on stage.

"Ugh, I don't even want to talk about it." Akira forced herself to give an air of finality that Kenji respected. He only laughed, though it was the kind of laugh that made her feel warm inside rather than hurt.

"That bad, huh?"

"Yeah, and-"

"Akira, get off the phone and go to bed!"

"Yes ma'am!" Sometimes she hated her mother. Why couldn't she understand that she was eighteen now, not five? She returned to the phone.

"Hey Kenji, I have to go."

"Oh yeah, you have a phone curfew." Akira rolled her eyes. It sounded so childish coming from Kenji, and he was two years younger than her!

"Well, good night."

"'Night, Akira. Sweet dreams." With that the phone clicked off. Her hand lingered on it for a few seconds, debating mentally if she wanted to break the rules and call him again. Finally she decided that getting on her mother's bad side wasn't worth anything, and flipped open her cell to email Mrs. Kurokawa. After making sure the email hadn't bounced, she crawled into bed and closed her eyes.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

**A/N: Wow, Kite was out of character in this chapter, huh? Actually, so was BlackRose. Don't worry, they'll be back in character in a bit. Kite's still getting over the whole Pluto Again incident, even though it's been two years. Reality is going to crash into him pretty soon xD**

**And I love writing Mia. She's so snarky and likes to twist her words to mean so many different things. We'll be seeing her interact with Elk in a chapter or two, as well as reuniting with Kite and BlackRose (though she barely remembers the latter). **

**Also, Kite is sixteen and BlackRose is eighteen in this, so I kind of screwed around with the timeline a bit. All the names used (except for Kite's and Balmung's) are the official names according to the .hack wiki.**


	4. Spider on the Ceiling

"Ohhh, good morning, Risa! You haven't been around here for a while, have you?" Her mother had been in some wierd, polite high ever since Fumikazu had come out of his coma, Akira realized. Her eyes slowly creaked open, blurring her vision as she tried to find something to focus on. _There, on the ceiling_. It was that mental voice again, the one who had been her inspiration for her character's name and the one who had given her the golden sword. It was referring to a spider that was crawling along the ceiling, minding its own business as it scurried to the other end of her room. Her eyes followed it, keeping careful track of its movements.

Spiders fascinated her. They were beautiful creatures that could be saviors or killers, never taking any side other than the one that led to their survival. She liked to think that they had complex lives like humankind did, events like Pluto Again that made them stop and think about the world around them. If they did though, they never let it show. Akira found this an excellent trait, even if they were truly oblivious to the thousands of spiders killed each day just because they _existed_. She felt sorry for the things, so helpless against the power of a shoe or fly swatter. So she let them roam around her room if she saw them, never even thinking of disrupting their patterns. They left her alone if she left them alone.

Of course, she would never tell this to anyone, especially not her friends and family. The only person who knew anything about her strange quirk was Daigoro. He told her about his motorcycles, she told him about her spiders. His reaction had consisted of a simple grin, a hug, and a brief statement on how she was 'unique' and that he admired her for it.

Then he had ruined the whole moment by telling her he had thought that she was a guy. After Akira had given him a well-deserved black eye, he told her that most of the females that he had met only were actually male. _"There are no girls on the internet. Everyone knows that!"_

_"That's really not what any girl wants to hear. Let me guess, you don't get many girls at your place, do you?"_ He had been suspiciously silent after that. That made Akira feel bad, and she had apologized. Their relationship had remained at that strange awkward phase that neither of them really felt like leaving. Considering that their in-game friendship had started rocky and had never really progressed from that, it only made sense that in real life it would be the same way.

"- Akira should be up by now. If not, you have my permission to knock her off the bed!" Her attention returned to the present as she left her memories behind. The spider had long disappeared, probably camping out in a web that had been built between her wall and the bed. That was where most of the webs were until her mother actually got around to dusting.

Risa slipped into her room, causing Akira to quickly refocus on her friend. The hyper girl was already hopping up and down, clapping her hands wildly. Akira arched an eyebrow. "Hey... Risa..." She suddenly stopped, narrowing her eyes. A shiver made its way up Akira's back at her friend's death glare; she had forgotten something, hadn't she?

"Um, did you forget that we were going shopping with Shouko and Miho today? You're such an airhead!" Akira mentally cursed. _Better tell her you have other plans, Akira!_ Gee, the voice sounded awfully happy that she had made other plans. Then again, it had also gotten excited when she had restarted her The World account, only to have been crushed when it found out that she wasn't acutually playing. Kazu said it was her inner temptation, only amplifying her desire for something.

"Feel free to call me that, cause I made other plans. I have to go to Umami at noon." This captured Risa's interest instantly. It was an infamous couple's stop, with very few non-romantic diners present. It just so happened that it was where the dot hackers held their meetings. There was nothing romantic going on between any of them, unless the counted the one-sided 'dating' that was happening between Natsume and Kenji. No matter how many times Kenji denied that anything was happening from his side, she always felt a strange twinge of jealousy everytime Natsume glomped him.

"Umami, huh? I'll be happy to excuse you for ditching us if you tell us who the lucky guy is!" She winked and nudged, waiting expectantly for an answer. If she was expecting something scandalous, she wasn't going to get it. There were going to be several others with the 'lucky guy', first off. And then they were going to be discussing how they could keep Aura, an artifically intelligent being inside a _computer game_, alive and well for the next generation of players. That not only sounded dorky, it sounded batshit insane!

"Well, it's a secret, Hamaoka, cause if I told you everyone would know by tomorrow!" She winked back, drawing away from her friend's disappointed figure. Almost instantly she brightened up, bouncing from leg to leg. Akira laughed.

"Well then, Hayami, I guess the gang and I'll have to do a bit of snooping, am I right?" With that she bounced herself off the bed, moving slowly towards the door with a sly grin on her face.

"Good luck finding anything, Hamaoka! You're gonna need it!"

"Oh, I _always_ find something in the end, Hayami. See you later!" And with those final words, she left.

**A/N: Yay, filler! I love it so~ Anyway, the next chapter will definitely have the meeting at the restaurant (bonus points if you know what Umami means) and actually having interactions beyond Risa. **

**Of course they're curious about this mystery boy that Akira's seeing, but how far will they go to get information? After all, she's the last person in their little gang without a boyfriend. It's a monumentous occasion!**

**Thanks for the reviews, by the way. They mean a lot to me! 8D**


	5. Author's Note

**A/N: I'm putting this story on a short hiatus until band camp is over ): I lost inspiration for it, but I really do want to finish it. So yeah, expect another chapter in September/October :3**

**Also, I have another story going called **_**Time Capsule**_**. It's an Ocarina of Time fanfiction and I would really appreciate it if you all could check it out x3 The only reason I'm writing it now is because it's lighter and not as heavy as this fic is, and until I get my muse back this isn't going much of anywhere.**

**Thanks to all who have reviewed/read the story so far! It will be returning, I just don't have the time right now.**

**Thanks again,**

**Hakkari**


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